


Cracked

by fearnotthedemons



Series: Broken Glass, Broken Dreams [2]
Category: Fallen Hero Series - Malin Rydén, Fallen Hero: Rebirth (Video Game)
Genre: Fighting, Gen, Mental Instability, Spoilers, breakdown - Freeform, this is the bad ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-15 03:33:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18490474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fearnotthedemons/pseuds/fearnotthedemons
Summary: It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.





	Cracked

**Author's Note:**

> I also have a good ending I'll write for her but this is take one of my "what if" scenario. I kind of see it like two sides of a coin because either sidestep learns to heal and adapt and move on or they let their problems and their past drag them down and lead to their ultimate failure. This is Frances' failure.

City Hall is in flames by the time the Rangers arrive. The mayor is dead, lying limp in Heartbreak’s arms on the steps of the building that burns behind them, and Heartbreak is-- laughing? Or sobbing. It’s hard to tell with the vocal distorters and the screaming civilians scattering in all directions, but the closer Ortega gets the more certain he is that it’s both.

The Rangers do not engage immediately, despite the restless urgency they all feel, instead letting Steel make first contact. Heartbreak has been a reasonable villain up to this point. Rushing in guns blazing is the last thing they need, and this gives any remaining citizens the chance to run to safety.

“Heartbreak,” Steel calls from a safe distance, his Marshal voice as controlled as ever despite the chaos around them. “Stand down.” Heartbreak starts, looking up from the body in their hands like a child caught with a broken toy. The villain that has been consistently three steps ahead of them taken off-guard by a voice.

“You’re too late,” they say, and even distorted the pitch is wrong. Unhinged. “She’s dead now.” Heartbreak lifts the corpse for emphasis, as if it weighs nothing. They drop it to the steps below them with that same thoughtlessness, and the movements are too stilted, jittery. “You killed her, Marshal. You and your precious Rangers killed this whole city the moment you believed.”

“Believed what?” Steel asks through gritted teeth. Ortega’s brow furrows with worry. Herald lands suddenly beside him, uncoordinated and shaking his head like there’s something he’s trying desperately to get out. Even Argent has a hand clutched to her temple, silvery not-quite-human eyes glaring at the villain in front of them. It has to be mental interference, because Ortega can’t feel anything besides a vague pressure, and the only place it can be coming from is Heartbreak. _Since when were they a telepath?_

“That you were heroes,” they say, gesturing broadly at them from their vantage point on the stairs. The building behind them begins to collapse. “For all the lives you claim to have saved, you’re nothing more than a smoke screen, government puppets forced to dance to the song they played for you. Do you even know the atrocities you’re complicit in?”

“Don’t talk to me about atrocities when you’re standing over the body of an innocent woman. Stand. Down.”

“ _Innocent_?” Heartbreak laughs, and the sound is shrill, like broken glass that digs into Ortega’s spine. “I’m standing over the body of an oppressor, Marshal. A killer in all but name. You and your little heroes stand on a mountain of corpses years in the making, and you don’t even know it. Tell me which one of us is the villain.”

Framed against a burning building, standing on the bloodied steps of what used to be Los Diablos’ City Hall and gesturing with a passionate emphasis that is almost unbalanced, Heartbreak doesn’t look like anything _but_ a villain.

Argent growls, impatient. “Would you shut up already? Enough talking - let’s go,” she says, and without waiting for permission she launches herself at Heartbreak.

Her fingers have extended into claws sharp enough to pierce Heartbreak’s armor, maybe even sharp enough to kill, but she doesn’t make it far. Argent barely reaches the bottom of the staircase before collapsing on the ground in a heap, screaming and clutching her head. Heartbreak laughs. The Rangers rush to help their fallen teammate, but it’s only a matter of seconds before she’s passed out entirely, silver bullet of a body lying prone across the sidewalk. Ortega moves to prop her gently to the side when Herald plummets limply from the sky, taken out of the fight before it even truly began. Half of their team taken down without a single punch. Where has this power been for all their other fights?

With only Steel and Ortega left, Heartbreak shifts their stance, an open invitation. This time Steel does not try to talk them down. He and Ortega charge forward simultaneously, their battle plan unspoken but understood: Take Heartbreak down by whatever means necessary.

Steel’s armor is technically enough to win on its own, so with Ortega’s help this fight should be there’s. _Should_ , he thinks, because with their telepathy out in the air, Heartbreak lets everything else out, too. They still fight smart, there’s still that calculating tilt of their helmeted head, but now the metaphorical gloves are off. Where before they had seemed almost hesitant to damage their opponents beyond repair, now they strike full force where they knew it hurts the most. Mental jabs stabbing wildly with every punch, compensating for when Charge and Steel’s punches find their mark.  

“What are you waiting for, _Marshal_?” Heartbreak taunts after Steel manages to finally land a blow serious enough that they stagger back, the chest of their suit damaged in the impact. “Too old and weak to finish the job?”

Steel bares his teeth but says nothing, willing his shields to hold as Heartbreak bends their mental focus towards breaking them. Ortega tries to sneak behind and damage the left arm of their suit like he had back at the gala all those months ago, but Heartbreak dodges out of the way suddenly, sending Steel’s incoming attack right for him. They barely avoid the collision, and before Ortega is back on his feet Heartbreak is looming over him, hitting the weakest points of his body one by one, like they’re checking them off a list.

Manic laughter warps the air around them, creating an insular pocket of insanity. Ortega can feel it on the edges of his mind creeping in, and Steel is clutching his head behind them.

“You were supposed to stop me,” Heartbreak snarls, punctuating each word with another blow. Steel is all but forgotten to them now. “Kill me before they did. Now they’re coming for me, coming for me, and I will kill them all just like the mayor and there’s nothing anyone can do!”

“Wh-who’s ‘they’?” Ortega chokes out. He can see Steel slowly gathering himself in the hazy background of his vision. Just need to buy him a little time…

For the first time since they’ve fought, Heartbreak takes the bait. “My creators, the Farm, the people responsible for the corruption Los Diablos _reeks_ of. You, everyone, you’re all puppets to them, no one sees the strings!”

Steel inches forward, his armor clanking loudly but not loud enough to break them from their raving.

“And what- what happens if you cut the strings? What happens if you win?”

Heartbreak never gets to tell him, because Steel seizes that moment to rush forward and close the gap between them. He hits Heartbreak over the head with all his might, and Ortega can _feel_ the resounding crack of their helmet even more than he can see it.

Silence falls.

“No…” Steel says, but it’s not Steel anymore, it’s Chen.

Something’s not right.

Ortega struggles to sit up, ignoring the screams of protest from his damaged body, and limps to Chen’s side. They stand together above the cracked suit of Los Diablos’ most enigmatic villain, and when he finally sees what’s inside the helmet he hears the breaking glass at the top of that building all over again as he watched his best friend throw herself from that window.

“ _Frances_ ,” he whispers, voice hoarse and choked with so many emotions he couldn’t list them if he tried, his world crashing down around him once again. “Wh--”

Frances smiles, then, and it slaughters the question in his throat. Her teeth are bared and he can see the whites of her eyes and there’s a deranged sort of laughter oozing up out of her chest that sounds even more chilling without the vocal distorters, and suddenly he realizes that he never knew her. Not even a little bit. Not at all.

In the back of his mind he registers that Chen’s hand is on his shoulder while they watch her get carted away in a straight jacket. Her laughter echoes in his mind long after the vehicle fades into the distance.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Kudos/comments greatly appreciated <3


End file.
